I've been doing a little experiment this year by going to nearby residents and giving them some of my beef. It's a neighborly thing to do, and they in turn give me some of their tomatoes or apricots or whatever - one woman made me a banana nut bread - but I have another motive. They are people who had in the past expressed negative opinions about grass fed beef. They thought it tasted funny, was too lean to be good, too tough to chew, or they don't much like beef anyway - and besides, it has a bad reputation for everything from being a cause of global warming to making you fat and killing your heart.

Then I'd go back and interview them about it. I expected that their negative opinions would be moderated a bit since my beef really is good, but the effect was much larger than I expected.

First, they want more and will pay for it. Second, their friends and family want some too. Third, they want more information about the things I say about the health and environmental benefits. They want to change their views because they love the taste and want to feel good about eating it. Suddenly, I'm a good guy, a near genius perhaps, certainly a much nicer and smarter fellow than I had been just a short while ago. Curious that, how things work. I've not changed, but my stock has risen. Soon they will be bringing me their unwed daughters for appraisal. I suspect that the most beneficial service I can perform for their daughters is to teach them how to cook and eat.

Consider the problems of one of my frequent snarkees.

If burgers made you thin, but clogged your arteries, I think 95% of the "healthy" eaters I know would consume one every day. . .

They often actually claim they don't care about being thin. It's just a happy side effect of their drive for health. Indeed, I'm sure I've made that claim myself more than once while on the quasi-permanent diet of the Upper West Side woman.

Eat one of my burgers every day and it will not only help you slim down and stay slim, it will unclog your arteries. This assumes that you don't lard the burger up with condiments that are often loaded with sugars and bad oils, and also assumes that if a bun is used that it is also good quality food. The meat is healthful, with a good balance of fatty acids that won't harm your body and is even slightly therapeutic, much more so if you make that a cheeseburger and the cheese is from a grass dairy.

It's not magic meat, it won't correct a life of eating disorders overnight, but it will at least stop the continuing damage and begin the slow process of healing. And as my neighbors have demonstrated, it will be a pleasure. That, as much as anything else, is therapeutic. Enjoying your food without guilt is bound to improve your health and help you establish a saner relationship with eating. You can relax, smile and partake of life's simple pleasures.